Evaluating Rehabilitative Medical Information on the Korean Internet: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Stroke

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the sites of medical information by popular search engines and its appropriateness as guidance to medical information. METHOD: The search phrase "carpal tunnel syndrome" (CTS) and "stroke" were entered into four commonly used Korean web search engines. 24 and 21 web-sites from search engines were gathered, respectively. These web sites then were evaluated for authorship, content, and an informational value score was assigned to each. RESULTS: According to authorship in CTS, 16.6 percent of the sites were commercial sites and 20.8 percent were authored by oriental medical doctors with 37.5 and 16.6 percent by general physicians and physiatrists, respectively. With stroke, 9.5 percent was commercial and each 71.4, 19.0, 0 percent was authored by oriental medical doctors, physician, physiatrist respectively. Each 75, 28.6 percent of the sites offered conventional information. The mean informational value of web sites was 51.1, 41.1 points. CONCLUSION: The information about CTS on the internet is of limited quality, inconsistent contentional value, despite of relatively high informational value. With stroke, information was offered by mainly oriental medical doctors, and was not so valuable. The public and medical communities need to recognize these limitations so that the quality of medical information on the internet can be improved.